No further charges in camp death
By CRAIG SCHNEIDER, JILL YOUNG MILLER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 06/13/07
A North Georgia prosecutor said today he will no longer pursue any charges against the six workers charged with restraining and killing a boy at a state camp for troubled youth.
The decision by White County District Attorney Stan Gunter brings to an end a prosecution that has dragged on for two years, and run into several obstacles.
"There's nothing left to prosecute in the case," Gunter said.
His decision follows a pre-trial ruling on Friday by the judge in the case to dismiss the charges of felony murder and child cruelty against the camp workers, who have come under public condemnation and seen job opportunities disappear for the past two years.
The judge said the workers could not be prosecuted because they applied the restraint on 13-year-old Travis Parker as they had been trained, and consequently could not have known their actions could result in a crime.
Moreover, White County Superior Court Judge Lynn Akeley-Alderman concluded that Travis showed no outward signs during the restraint that his body was suffering.
Gunter, following the dismissal of all the charges, said today that he will not try to bring any other charges against the workers, a decision he has been mulling for several days.
"The judge's order left nothing to prosecute in the case," Gunter said.
Travis died in April of last year after being restrained for about 90 minutes at the Appalachian Wilderness Camp in North Georgia. He was held in a "full-basket" restraint by about three camp workers at a time.
The district attorney's decision closes the book on a legal ordeal for the six camp workers, who held fast to their innocence from the start. Their trials were set to start this month, but none of the six accepted plea bargains offered by the district attorney, at least one of which included no jail time.
Nancy Binford, the mother of former camp worker Paul Binford, said "Thank God" and burst into tears when she heard the news from a reporter. She and her husband, Mike, are "thankful that this ordeal is over," she said. "All six defendants are fine, compassionate, caring young men who have been unjustly treated for two years."
The case changed her 30-year-old son's path in life, she said. "Paul always wanted to be a child psychologist. He's a kid magnet. But he has changed his career goal. He wants to be a lawyer. He wants to help other innocent people get out from under charges like this that were unjustly imposed."
Paul Binford did not immediately return a phone call to his cell phone.
But the news stunned Golden Griffin, Travis' grandmother and guardian, into silence. After a long pause, she said, "I don't have any comment now."
Her lawyer, Harold Spence, said: "I am profoundly disappointed by this profound injustice. It's a shame that it appears that no one will be held accountable for Travis' death, and that the state medical examiner somehow provided the ammunition for the defense that Travis Parker was somehow the architect of his own death."
District Attorney Gunter, for his part, said that in the end he agreed that the charges against the camp workers - Ryan Chapman, Paul Binford, Mathew Desing, Torbin Vining, Johnny Harris and Phillip Elliott - be dropped. He said that as new evidence and testimony emerged in the case, it became clear that the workers were not guilty of the boy's death.
Particularly damaging to the prosecution was the pre-trial testimony of the medical examiner who performed the autopsy on the boy. Dr. Kris Sperry linked the death to the boy's prolonged resistance against the restraint. He said that if Travis had not struggled so long, he would not have died.
Today, Gunter said he blamed the boy's death on the state, asserting that the state agency that runs the camp did not properly train the camp workers in the potential dangers of the hold.
"The state of Georgia is at fault for Travis' death," he said.
The camp is run by the state Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Addictive Diseases, an arm of the state Division of Human Resources.
Division spokeswoman Kenya Bello declined to comment today, saying, "It is not appropriate for us to comment on court matters."
The state DHR settled a lawsuit by the Parker family last October for $1.7 million, according to a family attorney.
